"Turn that on its head, it's actually about a young person who is experiencing a great deal of pain and there's an enormous build up in them to the point where they say, 'how do I cope with this pain, where do I go with it', and that act of self-harm is almost an attempt to alleviate that."

Because I was in so much emotional pain, giving myself physical pain would take that away a bit.

Isabella Mitchell, 17

Isabella Mitchell, 17, suffered depression and eating disorders until last year, triggered by a severe case of bullying at school.

"At first it was more anorexic, I guess. I would starve myself and restrict my food intake," she said.

"Then it sort of turned more into bulimia because I'd start binging and that would become really addictive, the over-eating and then purging because of that and then it turned into anything that I ate I would purge - even if it was an apple," she said.

There has been a dramatic increase in the hospitalisation of young women who self-harm, writes Deborah Rice.

She soon started to self-harm, and now has many scars on her thighs and arms.

"Because I was in so much emotional pain, giving myself physical pain would take that away a bit," Isabella said.

"At first it was, I guess, maybe once a week, and then it was every day. When it was most severe I'd be doing it once, maybe twice a day, sometimes more."

The teenager kept the self-harm a secret from her parents, but they found out the first time Isabella was admitted to hospital.

"It was horrible," Isabella's mother Sara Hendy-Pooley said.

"We were just on this rollercoaster after that, she was admitted to the adolescent psych unit for four days and then it was a round of watching and not sleeping, my husband playing tag team, getting up in the middle of the night checking she was still alive, that sort of thing."

Teens using Tumblr to blog self-harm photos

Throughout the crisis, Isabella Mitchell says she used the blogging site Tumblr.

The website allows users to blog about their lives and upload photos.

It's a really big sub-culture of [self-harm] on Tumblr especially ... taking photos of themselves ... that's where I learnt a lot of ways to do it.

Isabella Mitchell, 17

Many sites include graphic pictures of self-harm, including arms and legs cut with razor blades.

"It's a really big subculture, on Tumblr especially, the self-harming websites and taking photos of themselves and all that. That's where I learnt a lot of ways to do it," Isabella said.

"I think it's as dangerous as the pro-anorexia websites because you've got this whole community of people suffering from this really dangerous disorder, and you just get consumed by it.

"Sometimes I'd be cutting just so I could have a photo to put up there and I know that was really common. Now that I look back at it, it was just like, 'how could I be doing that?'"

"I know that there's other people out there that have suffered the same thing as me, and I thought social media was the best way to go around getting it out there and letting people see that they're not the only one," she said.

Social media is a 'barometer' for self-harm

Mental health professionals want to harness the good in social media to help people suffering depression and self-harm.

Butterfly Foundation chief executive Christine Morgan says the medium is not to blame.

"I think one of the things we have to absolutely accept is it's not the fault of social media," she said.

"Social media is a channel, it is in a sense a barometer, but it's also a channel, a channel of communication.

"We need to embrace the fact that's what they want to do and actually try to substitute positive messages from each other, positive comments about each other rather than negative."

The more that young people talk, show pictures, share this information, there's a justifiable concern that in some ways this might increase the behaviour.

Prof Ian Hickie

Professor Ian Hickie, from Sydney University's Brain and Mind Research Institute, says mental health professionals are grappling with the impact of technology.

"The more that young people talk, show pictures, share this information, there's a justifiable concern that in some ways this might increase the behaviour, and so that's one of the really big issues with the new technologies that we have," he said.

He too wants to use social media to help Australians who self-harm.

"For those of us working in this field, we see the opportunity in social media to have the discussion and potentially help moderate the behaviour, rather than simply seeing it as a way of making everything worse," he said.

New technology used to research causes of depression

Professor Hickie is part of a trial of new technology to research the causes of depression.

The nation's leading youth mental health bodies are coordinating the trial, which involves 1,000 people wearing biometric watches that gauge their movements and sleeping patterns.

The information will then be used to assess the links between the patient's nervous system and their mood.

"We are now moving into the world of virtual clinics, of not necessarily having to come and see a counsellor or a doctor or a therapist, but increasingly being able to manage your own mental health problems by being able to monitor what is actually happening to you - your nervous system, your sleep-wake cycle, your body clock - and integrate that with psychological information to get better care," Professor Hickie said.

He says self-harm incidents are increasing and a quarter of all teenagers develop serious mental health problems. Of those, he says one in 10 experience thoughts of self-harm or suicidal ideation.

However, he says figures on actual rates of self-harm are difficult to determine.

Mental health body Headspace says evidence from Australian studies suggests that 6 to 7 per cent of Australian youth aged 15-24 years old engage in self-harm in any 12-month period.

"What we've seen in recent times is an increase in the number of people being admitted to hospital because of the seriousness of self-harm," Professor Hickie said.

"So repeated self-harm, self-harm resulting in considerable injury, is on the rise in Australia."

If you or anyone you know is suffering, mental health support can be accessed through Headspace. Professional help and counselling is also available through the Butterfly Foundation or their helpline on 1800 33 4673.